The proliferation of digital devices and the desire to prevent theft, abuse or misuse of information accessible by a device has imposed a password management regime upon consumers that is challenging their ability to develop and maintain control over wireless-enabled, networked technology. Social and economic dependence upon complex password management by individual consumers who are faced with an exponentially expanding number of consumer wireless-enabled devices is unsustainable.
The next technology wave is fast approaching in the form of the “Internet of things,” where the lives of consumers/workers/citizens will be delinked from fixed geographic locations. The power of digital devices has made work, learning, play, and healthcare services available at any location where a person with the right technology is present. Due to advances in RFID technology, the adoption of Internet Protocol version 6 (“IPV6”), the development of near field communication, continued miniaturization of computing technology, broad and sustained adoption of mobile wireless technology (means of supporting wireless communication), innovations in microchip technology, and software engineering, many consumer and commercial products, appliances and equipment have a unique Internet Protocol address, whereby one device is distinguishable from another. Indeed, IPV6 arises by necessity as the sheer number of addresses outstrips the IPV4 protocol. This proliferation of nodes compounds the security challenges, but at the same time presents opportunities to prevent loss and theft of physical items of all stripes.